Happy Jack eBook

He who climbs the highest has the farthest to fall,
but often it is worth the risk.

Happy Jack.

All the way home from his visit to Farmer Brown’s
house Happy Jack Squirrel puzzled and wondered over
what he had seen. He had peeped in at a window
and seen Farmer Brown’s boy lying all covered
up, with only his head showing. Happy Jack couldn’t
see very well, but somehow that head didn’t
look just right. One thing was sure, and that
was there was something wrong with Farmer Brown’s
boy. He never would have been lying still like
that if there hadn’t been.

Happy Jack had been so troubled by what he saw that
he had hardly tasted the nuts he had found on the
window-sill. “I am going to make him another
call to-morrow,” said he when he and Tommy Tit
were once more back in the Green Forest.

“Of course,” replied Tommy. “I
expected you would. I will be around for you
at the same time. You’re not afraid any
more to go up there, are you?”

“No-o,” replied Happy Jack, slowly.
The truth is, he was still a little afraid. It
seemed to him a terribly venturesome thing to cross
that open dooryard, but having done it once in safety,
he knew that it would be easier the next time.
It was. The next morning he and Tommy Tit went
just as before, and this time Happy Jack scampered
across the dooryard the very first time he tried.
They found things just as they had been the day before.
They saw Farmer Brown’s boy, but he didn’t
see them. Tommy Tit was just going to tap on
the window to let him know they were there, when a
door inside opened, and in walked Mrs. Brown.
It frightened them so that Tommy Tit flew away without
tasting a single nut, and Happy Jack nearly fell as
he scrambled back into the tree close by the window.
You see, they never had made her acquaintance, and
having her walk in so suddenly frightened them terribly.
They didn’t stop to think that there was nothing
to fear because there was the window between.
Somehow they couldn’t understand that queer stuff
that they could see through but which shut them out.
If they had seen Mrs. Brown go to the window and put
more cracked nuts on the sill, perhaps they would
have been less afraid. But they had been too badly
frightened to look back, and so they didn’t
know anything about that.

The next morning Tommy Tit was on hand as usual, but
he found Happy Jack a little doubtful about paying
another visit. He wasn’t wholly over his
scare of the day before. It took him some time
to make up his mind to go, but finally he did.
This time when they reached the tree close by the
house, they found a great surprise awaiting them.
Farmer Brown’s boy was sitting just inside the
window, looking out. At least, they thought it
was Farmer Brown’s boy, but when they got a little
nearer, they grew doubtful. It looked like Farmer
Brown’s boy, and yet it didn’t. His
cheeks stuck way out just as Striped Chipmunk’s
do when he has them stuffed full of corn or nuts.